
Pass. i& l t£i3 
Book—-/- ^ 



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It 



I 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH? 



FAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, 



A. D. McOOY, 

RECT.te OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. N'EW ORLEANS 



Love the truth and peace.''-— ZECnARfAH viii: 19. 



NEW" ORLEANS : 

PUBLISH KD BY BLELOCK k CO., 130 "CANAL 8TRKK 
1865. 










Entered according to an Act of Congress in the Clerk's Office of the United States 
District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana; hy A. D. McCoy. October 26, 1865. 



'HIMOX, PRINTER.] 



PREFATORY PRAYERS. 



Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this 
day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those 
who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation ; But deliver 
us from evil : For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, 
for ever and ever. Amen. 

Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee, Lord, and by Thy great 
mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night, for the love of 
Thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Lord, we pray Thee, that Thy grace may always go before and follow 
us, and make us continually to be given to all good works ; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord : Amen. 

God ! merciful Lather, who despisest not the sighing of a contrite 
heart, nor the desire of such as are sorrowful ; Mercifully assist our 
prayers, which we make before Thee in all our troubles and adversities, 
whensoever they oppress us ; and graciously hear us, that those evils 
which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, may, 
by Thy good providence, be brought to naught ; that we. Thy servants, 
being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto Thee in 
Thy holy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us, for Thy name's sake : Amen. 

Direct us, Lord, in all our doings, with Thy most gracious favour, 
and further us with Thy continual help : that in all our works begun, 
continued and §nded in Thee, we may glorify Thy name, and finally, by 
Thy mercy, obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord : Amen. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
fellowship ot the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore : Amen. 



THE ORPHANS OF OUR SOLDIERS. 



The money realized by the author, from the sale of this 
book, he intends to invest chiefly for the benefit 'of ^ the 

widows and orphans of our soldiers. Especially lie pur- 
poses to establish, if possible, this autumn, a Classical and 
English, Agricultural and Mechanical School, male and 
female, principally fur them, with branches in and near 
Now Orleans. 

Those boys who continue with us until they are twenty-one 
years of age. and those girls who remain to the age of eigh- 
teen, will have an account kept of the actual cost of their 
living and education, and of the exact amount of the .earn- 
ings of their labor. And the day they severally attain their 
majority, they will each receive the amount they have 
earned r So that each industrious 

boy should have for his share from one to three thousand 
dollars at least: and each girl not less than one thousand 
dollars, with which to commence their conflief with the 
outside world. Boys or girls leaving, or expelled, before 
they are of age, will forfeit what they may have earned. 

It is intended that the discipline of the school shall be 
strict, but exercised upon Christian principles. The law of 
the school is the ten commandments, as summed up by our 
Lord, and interpreted in the Church Catechism, as found in 
the Appendix. 



v j^ LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

The following correspondence, held in 1863, indicates our 
object and its approval: 

Livingston, Sumter County Ala., ) 
September 4th, 1863. j 
To His Excellency Jefferson Davis, President of C. S. A : 

Dear Sir: Although I know your cares to be innumerable 
and your time to be very precious, yet I venture to send you 
the enclosed circular, and ask your opinion concerning the 
industrial feature of the proposed school. 

I wish to dignify labor, to convince all men in the 
Confederacy, that honest work is honorable employment for 
all classes of men. I am sure it is so, but the. popular 
opinion is different. Since the glorious Son of God wrought 
with Joseph, a carpenter, all degradation has been removed 
from the occupation of a mechanic 

If you agree with me in this opinion, a few words from 
you, whom I esteem as now holding the highest position of 
any living man, will go far towards putting this subject in 
its true light before the citizens of the Confederacy, and the 
inhabitants of the world. 

I am, and have long been, an undoubting believer in the 
divine institution of slavery. But I believe the temporal 
and eternal well-being of slaves, and the production of their 
labor, are .not what tliey would be if all the young raennn 
our country, and the women too, were practically acquainted 
with what it is to work. 

The industrial feature of the school is borrowed from the 
Children's Home of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Xew 
Orleans, which I had the pleasure of commencing* four years 
ago, under the advice and with the full approbation of 
Bishop Polk. 

When I was exiled from that city with my family on the 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. y{{ 

4th of June last, I missed the Home, where I was in the 
habit of meeting every morning about thirty boys and 
twenty girls. And I do earnestly hope that the Shepherd of 
Israel, in my exile, will bless the effort to establish similar 
refuges in our beloved Confederacy. A good word from 
you, sir, I feel sure, will aid the effort very much. 
Believe me, sir, most respectfully, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

A. D. McCOY. 



Richmond, Va., September 25th, 1863. 

Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 4th instant, 
and take pleasure in expressing my approval of the scheme 
set forth in the accompanying circular of the school to be 
established at Livingston, in which, in addition to a good 
English and Classical education, the pupils will have an 
opportunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of a trade. 

I agree with you entirely in the opinion, that any honest 
work is honorable employment, and that the community 
would be much benefitted if every member of it was prac- 
tically acquainted with some mechanical pursuit, 

The people of these States have been successful agri- 
culturalists, have afforded many illustrious examples of 
eminence in all the professions, have fixed the admiration of 
the world by the skill of their Generals and the prowess of 
their troops in war, and there is no reason to think that they 
are not qualified to excel in any occupation requiring high 
mental and physical endowments. The absolute necessity 
which they now feel for sending abroad for the products of 
the skill a ud industry of foreign nations, and the difficulty 
experienced in importing them, should persuade everybody 



v j|j LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

of the importance of educating citizens of the country in 
the manufacturing arts. 

I hope, therefore, sir. that your efforts will receive proper 
support, and that the school will send out many pupils well 
prepared for usefulness. 

The laudable purpose to which you intend to devote the 
profits of the enterprise, and the liberal promises you make 
to those rvho may continue at the institution until they 
become of age, should secure for the undertaking general 
favor. 

With assurances of my best wishes. „. . 

I am very respectfully, your fellow- citizen, 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
Ixev. A, D. McCoy, Livingston* Alabama. 



DEDICATION 



This first-fruit of my pen is most loVingl) dedicated to m\ aged 
and venerable Mother, to whom I am inexpressibly indebted, in thai 
from a child she has caused me to know the Holy Scriptures. 

A. IX McC. 



PKEFACE. 



The following letters were first intended to be published in the 

Livingston (Ala.) Journal, edited" by Capt. Ben. F. Herr. But upon 

consultation, it was determined that the effect designed to be produced 

would be reached more effectually by their appealing together, than in 

iv series. If they shall, in any wise, correct errors and produce relief 

to the needy and industrious, the writer will be thankful to God for 

having been the author of them. They are commended to the blessing 

of the Holy Trinity— the one living and true God. 

The Author. 
New Orleans, L.v., October In, A. D. 1865. 



LETTER I. 



Livingston, Ala., September, 1865. 

My Dear Captain — Somewhat late in life, I am thinking 
that I may become an author, and purpose, through the col- 
umns of your journal, to offer some thoughts on Labor in the 
South, its Past, its Present and its Future. 

These thoughts are offered as suggestions, 'with the hope 
that they may lighten the oppression of spirits, and aid 
to dispel the fearful forebodings of our people. Indeed, 
almost every man and woman we meet indicates a very dis- 
turbed state of mind. They say, "Everything is so dark 
now, and in the future there is no light." Upon the South 
lias fallen that condition of which our blessed Savior speaks. 
In this part of the nation is "distress with perplexity — men's 
hearts failing them for fear." Our miseries arc so complica- 
ted that we know not where to ilee for refuge, and we seem 
to be asking, "who will shew us any good?" While the 
gloom is so deep the feeblest taper may be welcome. The 
thoughts I suggest may be to some a light. 

We must ever bear in mind, gentle reader, that the obli- 
gations of the Amnesty oath are upon me. Nothing must 
be written which will be against those sacred and most 
binding duties. In what I may write, I hope to be "saved 
from all error, ignorance, pride and prejudice/' and bear 
continually in mind, that our final Judge has said, "All liars 
ahall have their portion in the lake which burnetii with fire 
and brimstone." 

Some may wish to know who it is that ventures to offer 



J A LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

himself as a guide at such a time as this. To save time and 
inquiry, I now say, it is one born in New Jersey, in 1813, 
when it was a slave State. His father then, and for several 
years after, owned slaves. In 1822, his parents moved to 
New York City. He carried with him the love he had for 
negroes in his early childhood. At twelve years of age he 
went as an apprentice to learn the trade of a coach and 
wagon-maker. At fifteen, his health being threatened, he 
left that very laborious business and spent a year in Team- 
ing to lay bricks and to plaster. During two months of the 
winter of 1829-30. he visited every abode of blacks he could 
find in New York city, acting as almoner for some six men 
of large wealth and great liberality. He then went to 
school and daily working at one or the other of his trades, 
he met the expense of his living and schooling. In 1833, 
he was urged to become Superintendent of the Colony in 
Liberia, but thought himself too young and inexperienced. 
That year he went to Northern Indiana, Four years after, 
he removed to Grand River, Michigan. These five years 
were employed, two in teaching, the remainder in the duties 
of a minister of Christ. Tie became a pastor in Lowell, 
Massachusetts, in 1839, and resided there nearly live years; 
then removed to Fall River, in the same State, and continued 
there about three years. He removed in 1847 to Louisiana, 
and served ten years in the Red River country. In 1850, 
he was asked b}^ Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina, if he 
would accept the office of Bishop of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in Africa — he declined. On Red River, he 
instructed statedly three congregations of whites and eight 
congregations of blacks. The latter, in the aggregate. 
numbered sixteen hundred. Occasionally, in that country, 
he ministered to many thousands besides, as he could have 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 1 C 

them assembled, on his many journeyings.. In 1851, he 
removed to New Orleans, and took charge of what used to 
be the Seamen's Bethel, now St. Peter's church. He was 
there until the 4th of June, 1863, when, being exiled, he came 
to Livingston, Alabama — expecting early in November to 
resume his duties in New Orleans. 

It will be seen that he has had ample opportunities for 
'observing and comparing- the free labor of whites with 
slave labor. He confidently hopes, from all that he may 
suggest, some, if not many, may be shown how to obtain 
relief from difficulties which seem to make our case hopeless, 
Ho trusts the result of this new effort, by God's blessing, 
may be to provide good homes, profitable employment and 
good education for many whose husbands and fathers ha?e 
been taken from them in the late disastrous war, and for- 
very many others. 



LETTER II. 



Livingston, Ala., September, 1865. 
My Dear Captain — In riding from Choctaw county with an 
unusually intelligent negro the other day, I was highly 
entertained with his joyous narration of the happy days he 
had passed in sport with his young masters. After listen- 
ing to him a long while, I asked, " Well, Joe, I should like 
to know which affords you the most pleasure just now, to 
look back or to look for ward." He replied, " to look back," 
and "if I could only be where I was twelve years ago, I 
would be as happy as I can be." I said, " I have no doubt 
of it." In " truth and soberness," I have no doubt that if all 
of African descent, in these States, could be placed where 
they were twelve years ago, it would be the greatest possi- 
ble change to their advantage. With very few exceptions, 
they were a thousand times better off every way than they 
are now, or can reasonably be expected to become for the 
next hundred years, in my most deliberate judgment. They 
were well housed, well fed and clothed, well cared for when 
they were sick and nursed most assiduously. The little 
children were watchfully kept out of harm's way, and the 
old and infirm were suitably provided for, by the person or 
family who had enjoyed the fruit of their labor, when they 
were possessed of the full vigor of their strength. When 
they were slaves, therefore, they were more, richly compensated 
than they can ever be in the future. Under the representa- 
tions of those who are opposed to the institution, a different 
opinion has generally prevailed on this point in Europe and 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. -j tj 

in the North and West. When at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1850, 
1 visited a friend of my youth, to whom and his family I was 
very strongly attached from the remembrance of the many 
favors I had received from their liberal hands. The second 
time I called upon them, the above named point came under 

discussion in this wise: Mr. S inquired whether lever 

read to my people, who were slaveholders, that passage of 
holy scripture which speaks of keeping back the wages, by 
fraud, of those who have reaped down their fields. I said, 
•'■0 yes, sir, it was the second lesson of. the evening service, 
the very last Sunday 1 was at home." But he inquired. 
" Did you explain and apply it!" I replied, " No, sir, for the 
good reason that it is so plain it cannot be misunder- 
stood. Nothing is clearer," said I, " than that if a man 
accepts the labor of his fellow-man without suitably reward- 
ing him, he does very wrong. I hope/' said I, "you do not 
think our Southern people do this." " But," he replied, " I do 
think so, and it is so." J said, "if you, sir, could listen to me 
without becoming angry, I think I could show you that the 
Southerners pay their negroes higher wages than you North- 
ern folks pay for white labor." He said, "Well, I would 
like to know how you make that out." "Well," said I, "listen 
without interrupting me, and I will tell you. ' They begin 
when the child is first bom to see that it is clothed, fed and 
protected, in sickness and in health, and the pay increases 
as the child grows, until it is ten or twelve years of ao- e: 
before which time the child has scarcely earned its salt any 
one day. All this is pay beforehand for labor to be rendered. 
Then, during all the period of labor the servant is furnished 
with a good house, substantial board and clothes, and if 
sick, the best medical attention that can be procured is 
given. The planter and his wife and family devote them- 



2 $ LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

selves to the work of nursing, if the case is a critical one, 
and besides this, as a genera! rule, they have ground given 
them to cultivate for themselves, and many an opportunity 
is offered them to work for their own profit. When they are 
crippled, or wholly disabled, as if they become old and 
infirm, they are just as well provided for, and attended to, 
as the}' were before, and when they die they are decently 
buried. This compensation which they receive towards the 
end of life, is as wages for their past labor, laid up for them 
in the hands of their masters. And," said I, " this is remark- 
able, since I have lived in the South, I have never heard of 
one of these working people becoming a pauper, to be sup- 
ported at the cost of the public; but the person or the family 
for whom the servant has wrought always paid the expenses. 
Now, if you put all this together, sir, I think } 7 ou will see 
mi people pay better wages than yours." After I had 

finished what I had to say, Mr. S said, " Now would you 

like to know what I think of you?" ;i Yes," I replied. Said 
he, " I think you are on the road to the devil, and going on 
as fast as possible," I answered, "I can only say that it 
had been ray intention to take a different direction. But I 
perceive that you are angry, and before I become so, I think 
it best to say, " 'good night.'" 



LETTER III. 

Livingston, Ala., September, 1805. 
My Dear Captain — As the system of labor in the South was, 
the ministers of the gospel found one great advantage in the 
prosecution of their work. On the plantations, their con- 
gregations were regular attendants upon the services in all 
weathers. Sometimes under a burning sun, at other times in 
the rain, the rides to the estates were not so very pleasant. 
The knowledge that those we expected would be assembled 
for divine service, gave the courage necessary to meet the 
trial. On Red River I had three services for these people, 
almost every Sunday, after having attended to the Sunday 
School and the morning service for whites. During a period 
of eight years, weather never hindered me from meeting my 
appointment in a single instance, winter or summer; so that 
the services and the sermons had the effect which their 
stated ministration will usually produce. Many of the ser- 
vants were converted, and after their change rapidly grew 
in grace and in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
Most delightful was the improvement of these people in all 
holy conversation and godliness. True, all of them could 
not read; but I have rarely officiated on an estate where 
some of the servants had not this knowledge. And I will 
add, this privilege would have been greatly extended but 
for the reasonable fear that the enemies of slavery would 
use it for the diffusion of then* pestiferous and disorganiz- 
ing productions. I never know a planter to hesitate to. 
allow the free distribution, among his servants, of copies of 



*)A LABOK IN THE SOUTH. 

the Holy Scriptures, or the Book of Common Prayer, and 
many hundreds of copies of both have I given to slaves. I 
have been on some plantations where there were large 
choirs of singers, each with his book in hand, singing lustily 
with a good courage, and thus leading the praises of God, 
in which every one present appeared heartily to join. Never 
has my soul been more stirred with sacred melody than on 
these occasions, and. fond memory dwells upon them as on 
glimpses of a better world, and my heart sickens to think 
that those assemblies are all broken up, for all time to come, 
and those who composed them are dispersed, never more to 
convene at the sound of the plantation bell. Surely the 
active enemies of slavery cannot know what they have 
done in this to hinder the salvation of men. They may 
exult in the thought that they have destroyed an institution 
which they considered wrong. But was the relation of 
master and slave wrong? Was not Abraham an owner of a 
very large number of slaves, and would his great and good 
God have allowed him, his friend, to live and die in this 
wrong, if it was as egregious as in modern times, and in 
our country it has been represented? Were not Isaac and 
Jacob slaveholders from the time they owned any thing 
until they died? And did the God of Abram, Isaac and 
Jacob never intimate that in this they were living in sin and 
in danger of death eternal? Modern abolitionists, who claim 
to be amongst the most conscientious of all people, would 
not sit at the holy communion with a slaveholder. Do you 
think that they can possibly be persuaded to sit down with 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven? If 
slavery was so very wrong, why did not Moses, or the 
prophets, or some of the Psalms thus speak of it? It was.. all 
around them always. If wrong, it is one of the wrongs 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. O 1 

that even Solomon did not discover. Why did not the 
faithful and tune witness, the blessed and holy Jesus some- 
where lift up his voice against it? It was all around him 
while he was in the flesh on earth How could such a sin 
be winked at by the zealous St. Peter, or the faithful St. 
Paul? Was not the love of St. John true enough to have 
moved him to reprove it, if it had* been so sinful? One man 
in Boston, standing as a minister, said, that in some respect* 
he was superior to Jesus Christ. Others may have thought 
likewise of themselves, and this may lead to the secret. 



LETTER IV. 



Livingston. Ala., September, 18G5. . 
My Dear Captain — When you turn from the past and 
consider the present condition of Labor in the South, did 
you ever see a greater contrast? Did you ever read oni the 
pages of any history, where an entire people, inhabiting so 
many and great States, have been so suddenly and so thor- 
oughly upset in all their plans of labor in the field, the 
work-shop and household? Why, a very short time ago this 
portion of the* land was as the garden of Eden. It- is now 
a desolate wilderness. Joy and gladness were met in the 
mansions and in the cabins Now you meet only dejection, „ 
sadness and gloom, among the high and the humble. Mer- 
riment has ceased in the home of the planter, and the gush- 
ing joyousness of the servants is gone, Where industry, 
order, quiet and prosperity were seen, the very opposite to 
all these exist. The plans of our proprietors have all been 
thwarted, and the humble, dutiful spirit of the servants is 
among the things only to be remembered. He who can dis- 
cover how or when society can be brought back to the 
orderly condition required to inspire mutual confidence 
among the various classes of our population, would be wel- 
comed almost as an angel of God. Where is the one neigh- 
borhood in all our borders where contracts are faithfully 
stuck to by those who have agreed to work faithfully? 
"Where is the one plantation where the hired hands do one- 
half the work they did before the surrender? I have not 
been able to hear of one far or near. The end of the year 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. *>Q 

is approaching, the autumn winds begin to blow, and where 
is the one planter who has " free dm en" engaged to cultivate 
his lands and gather in the crop the next year? I have not 
heard of one anywhere. Ah ! my dear sir, the beauty of 
this land is at present gone. Time was among us when 
confidence and real affection were mutual between master 
and slave. The former stood as tall spreading oaks, and 
the latter were as noble vines entwined about the trunks 
and spreading over the branches. The dew and the rain of 
heaven, in their season, descended upon both. The oaks 
were strengthened and the vines grew with unexampled 
luxuriance; the rich foliage of both were so intertwined as 
to present to the eye one view. The fruit of the vines blest 
our own land in, every portion of it, and gave to the most 
distant nations of the civilized world employment, and com- 
fort. It enriched the merchants and manufacturers, and 
provided food and clothing to millions of the poor and 
needy. Not a few envied the usefulness of the vines, and 
looked with evident pain on the strength and prosperity of 
the oaks, which bore up and gave strength to them. So. 
after a long muttering of distant thunder, and many lurid 
flashes, only regarded at first as innocent as the heat-ligmt- 
ning of a quiet summer evening, a tempest came from 
the direction of East by North. It blew with gradually 
increasing strength, steadily for years. At length it gained 
the force of the hurricane, and suddenly, in its rage, it tore 
all these vines from all the oaks in our land, exhausting the 
vital strength of the trees, and causing the vines to lie 
prostrate, casting all the branches into inextricable disorder 
and confusion, so that thousands upon thousands of the 
tendrils, without their accustomed care, and wholly out of 
their natural place, have died already. Not a few of the 



91 LABOB IN THE SOUTH. 

stronger brunches have been crushed miserably; and some 
good judges of the nature of this vine think will soon per- 
ish, and come to a fearful end. To restore slavery as it was 
is as impossible as to elevate and replace a huge vine and -its 
branches after it lias once been cut loose and thrown down. 
It would demand the exercise of the special wisdom and 
power of Almighty God. Mortals cannot do it. So let us 
rest in the conclusion that the old system of labor in the 
South is gone, and forever: We, therefore, must employ our- 
selves as projectors, using our best judgment, industry and 
skill to discover a plan of labor for the future, which will 
Wing the greatest good to the greatest number. 



LETTER V. 

Livingston, Ala., September, 1865. 
My Dear Captain — The inquiry, " what can we do?" is now 
heard in all portions of the Southern country; especially 
urgent are they in pressing it, who have large tracts of 
land which they used to cultivate with a great number of 
slaves,, who have been lately wedded to a certain unknown 
and very uncertain character called Liberty, and judging- 
from the experience of the past four or five months, they 
seem to be bent upon passing, free from labor, their joyous 
honey-moon for at least a year or two. I have yet met with 
no one Southern man who expects to get much work out of 
the negroes for that time at least. What shall we do, then? 
Shall we give up our lands, forsake our improvements, 
let our fields become overgrown as a wilderness? 0, no ! 
''Arise and be doing, and the Lord will be with you." " Trust 
in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land, and verily thou 
shalt be fed." You may hold your landed estates as you 
have done. Retain what of your working stock and imple- 
ments of husbandry are left to you, and. add to them as 
your means will enable you. If you will cast your eyes 
over the country, you will ascertain that there are many 
thousands of respectable families, the heads of which fell in 
battle, or sickened and died in our camps or hospitals. In 
many such families there are sons and daughters, strong 
and able to work. Such families can be found in cities and 
in various parts of the country, who are proud of the parent 
who risked his life for the salvation, as he thought, of his 
country. Many of them have been deprived of all their 



9p } LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

means of support, and they cannot stoop to ask alms of 
those for whom the dear ones died. In these desolate homes 
are gathered sons — twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, 
twelve and ten years of age — ready to put their hands to 
the plough, the axe or the hoe. It is expected that many in 
our land who. will not work, think they will live b}' rob- 
bing and stealing from planters. You need to have all 
portions of your estate as well guarded as possible against 
such depredations. Why not, then, divide your lands into 
farms of suitable size for several families, whom you may 
obtain to reside upon and cultivate them? Erect on them 
houses, neat, cheap and most comfortable, such as what are 
called the " cat-and-clay " houses, at first built by the Span- 
ish and French settlers in all parts of Louisiana. They are 
very cool in summer and warm in winter. Add to them the 
few out buildings required by each family, and divide among 
them your live stock and farming utensils. See that each 
family is supplied with food sufficient for them. That the 
arrangement may secure as much of essential permanency 
as possible, make contracts with the sons until each is of 
age. Let the older ones be engaged to work as men usually 
do, the entire clay. Those boys under sixteen years of age, 
divide into two bands — let one of these bands work five 
hours in the morning and be in school in the afternoon, and 
the other, who has been in school in the morning, take their 
places in the evening. Let your contracts be so made, that 
when exigencies arise, at any season of the your, you may 
concentrate the labor on any portion of the estate requiring 
it. Engage to pay "just and equal " wages to those who 
may cultivate your lands, according to the several abilities 
of those employed. Let half of these wages be paid at 
suitable intervals, that the wants, beside necessary food, 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 2 J 

may be supplied. The other half retained, giving your 
obligation for it, amply secured, at the end of each year 
bearing interest. Let these obligations be paid when each 
son becomes of age, if he shall have complied with the 
terms of his contract. If there is doubt whether he has, let 
the question be submitted to the decision of disinterested 
•persons, or the proper legal authorities. Each farm should 
be kept as independent of the other as can be consistently 
with the unity of the whole estate. If you think you would 
be embarrassed in the direction of such a different system of 
labor, then employ as agent for the estate some gentlemanly, 
judicious and skillful man, who has been used to give such 
direction. Through him you may have your lands cultivated 
as you desire, and such stock raised as you wish to produce. 
Retain in your own hands the decision of all questions 
arising between the agent and the farmers, and let such 
agents have only the office of directors and instructors in 
the agricultural work, that there may be no intrusion into 
the sacred privacy of the several families. The daughters 
of such households will find useful employment in the sev- 
eral domestic duties. It would be easy for them to add to 
their comfort and revenue by spinning-, sewing and weaving. 
With the use of modern improvements in mechanism, these 
branches of industr}- would yield a most liberal compensa- 
tion for the labor. After long and most patient deliberation, 
I can see no insurmountable difficulty in putting such a 
system as I have sketched into operation, to a large extent, 
by the end of the present year. I know there are many and 
great difficulties in the way; but I earnestly believe that 
this system can be put into full and complete operation as 
easily as any other. I know there are many poor all over 
the country who deem it a degradation to work. For such 



2g LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 

I have no sympathy. I most earnestly believe, he that will 
not work, neither should he eat. I further believe it to be 
an actual and fruitful sin against God and good society to be 
lazy, or encourage laziness in others, by supporting the 
able-bodied without requiring them to work. There are 
maimed, aged, sick and needy persons in the world enough 
to consume all the alms philanthropists can give. To give 
to the lazy, is to rob the needy. Industrious, laboring fam- 
ilies are to be found in all our cities, who are willing and 
able to labor. They can be first employed and teach others 
the advantages of industry by their own prosperous exam- 
ple. If such teaching would not correct their errors — if 
they perish, their blood will be on their own heads. Philan- 
thropists are excused if they open the way for their indigent 
neighbors to live and prosper. 



LETTER VI. 



Livingston, Ala., September, 1865. 
My Dear Captain— In the plan for Labor in the South for 
the future, it will be seen that I have left out the negro. It 
is for the reasons I have stated. That race are, with very 
few exceptions, most sadly demoralized throughout all our 
borders. The few who are uncontaminated, may be hired 
on the estates to get timber and fencing", and do other such 
like work. The negroes are unfaithful in their contracts, 
and therefore unreliable. They have been taught by the 
Abolitionists that their former owners are their enemies, not 
to be trusted by them. This teaching of servants is quite 
otherwise than that which St. Paul instructed Timothy to 
"teach and exhort." — 1 Tim., 6: 1 — 6. Such a teacher con- 
sents not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to 
Godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about 
questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, 
railings, evil-surmisings, perverse disputings of men of cor- 
rupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain 
is godliness: from sucJi withdraw thyself." This latter clause, 
some of us thought, gave us divine authority to secede from 
such men. No one who knows of what has passed in these 
States the last four years can doubt but that they have suf- 
fered all these evil effects of this false teaching. Can they 
be better described by any- uninspired writer? Then, if 
thousands of servants, as the result of such teaching, are 
without house, food or raiment, ought we not, in our 



gQ LABOK IN THE SOUTH. 

extremely impoverished condition, to be relieved from the 
care and responsibility of providing for these people? If 
they will not faithfully work, we cannot support them. 
Our means for so doing have been taken from us. It is as 
much as we can possibly do to provide for the whites 
to whom we are more intimately related. We are as 
friendly as ever to the negro — our thanks are unbounded to 
the race that they remained so quiet, docile and obedient 
everywhere, when the men of the country had left- their 
homes to be gone for four years. Never did any working 
people behave themselves better under such circumstances. 
This is the opinion of every intelligent man and woman I 
ever conversed with on the subject. We therefore do not 
blame, but praise them. If the people of the North, and of 
Europe had occupied themselves with their own matters 
until the people of the South had begun seriously to meddle 
with any real or supposed evils of their systems of labor, 
there would have been no war from this cause, on this conti- 
nent, for a thousand years at least. And the servants of the 
South would have been left to go on in their paths of improve- 
ment and elevation. They, as a race, have advanced very 
far in all that dignifies and refines human nature, from what 
they were, when their ancestors were sold here, and their 
future improvement, if undisturbed, would, for many reasons, 
have been much more rapid than their past. History does 
not show, in any age, five millions of blacks, from the tribes 
which the ancestors of our servants belonged to, who equaled 
them in valuable attainments, physical, intellectual, moral 
and social. We think it but just, therefore, that those who 
have destroyed the good homes of these people should be at 
the expense of providing for them. The merchants of several 
countries in Europe, New England and other Northern States . 



LABOR IN THE SOUTH. §\ 

reaped all the gain from the slave trade which brought this 
class to the South. The descendants of these merchants are 
now luxuriating in the enjoyment of the fortunes obtained 
by the traffic in slaves. Our ancestors paid them their 
prices for these people. They made the first and greatest 
profits out of the institution; and I have to hear of the 
motion of the first one of them to refund anything to the 
families of the purchasers of the property which has now 
been rendered valueless. Surely it cannot be reasonable io 
give us the bearing of the burden of the thousands of help- 
less negroes. They must gather their bread from the hands 
which hold it; we have it not. What better field of charity 
can all the anti-slavery societies, everywhere, find, than to 
raise funds and provide for those whom their labors and 
expenditures have turned out to cold, nakedness, want, sick- 
ness and death? There will be use for all ihe funds which all 
the friends of the black man, in all countries, can raise to 
relieve the sick and the needy among them. They must be 
cared for and supplied. Is anything more reasonable than 
that those who have enriched themselves by abolition discus- 
sions and efforts, should supply the means, aided by those 
who were made rich by selling us the slaves? 



APPENDIX. 



THE LAW. 

I. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. 

II. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness 
of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the 
water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship 
them ; For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of 
the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate me : and show mercy unto thousands of them that love 
me. and keep my Commandments. 

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain : For 
the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt 
thou labor, and do all thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is the Sab- 
bath of the Lord thy God : In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, 
and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, 
thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea. and all that in them is, and rested 
the seventh day; Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and 
hallowed it. 

V. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in 
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

VI. Thou shalt do no murder. 
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
VIII. Thou shalt not steal. 
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 
X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, 
nor any thing that is his. 

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these Thy laws in our hearts, 
we beseech Thee. 

Hear also what our Lord Jesus Christ saith : 



34 APPENDIX. 

Tliou glial t love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, aud with all thy mind. This is the first and great Commandment. 
And the second is like unto it : Thou shalt lore thy neighbor as thyself. 
On these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

MY DUTY TOWARDS GOD IS : 

1. To believe in him. 

2. To fear him. 

3. To love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, 
and with all my strength. 

4. To worship him. 

5. To give him thanks. 

6. To put my whole trust in him. 

7. To call upon him. 
To honor his holy Name and his Word.^ 



S. 



9. To serve him truly all the days of my life. 



MY DUTY TO MY NEIGHBOR IS : 

1. To love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should 
do unto me. 

2. To love, honor and succor my father and my mother. 

3. To honor and obey the Civil Authority. 

4. To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors 
and masters. 

5. To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters. 

6. To hurt nobody by word or deed. 

7. To be true and just in all my dealings. 

8. To bear no malice or hatred in my heart, 

9. To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from 
evil-speaking, lying and slandering. 

10. To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity. 

11. Not to covet nor desire other men's goods. 

12. To LEARN and LABOR truly to get mine own living, and to do 
my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me. 

Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name : Thy King- 
dom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is heaven. Give us this day 



APPENDIX. q r 

day our daily bread. And forgive us our trepasses, as we forgive those 
who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation ; but deliver 
us from evil. Amen. 

In this prayer, I desire my Lord God our heavenly Father, who is the 
giver of all goodness. ' 

1. To send his grace unto me and to all people. 

2. That we may worship him. serve him. and obey him as we ought 
to do. 

3. And I pray unto God. that he will send us all things that are 
needful, both for our souls and bodies. 

4. That he will be merciful unto us, and forgive us our sins. 

5. That it will please him to save and defend us in all dangers, both 
of soul and body. 

G. That he will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from our 
spiritual enemy, and from everlasting death. 



Amount, $ 



Donor , 



Pupil, 



